Race Horse

There were 96 American law-enforcement officers killed in the line of duty last year. Two of them were co-workers of FBI agent Gordon McNeill. McNeill is lucky he didn't die, too. Next month will be the first anniversary of what has been called the bloodiest shoot-out in FBI history. McNeill and 13 other agents, using 11 cars, attempted to surround two murderous bank robbers in their car on a side street just off the busy South Dixie Highway in a suburb south of Miami.

It is an overcast morning Friday, and a tiny woman sits on a bale of hay outside a distant barn at Santa Anita. In the stall behind her is a giant race horse. Her name is Kathy Ritvo, his is Mucho Macho Man. She weighs barely 100 pounds. He stands more than 17 hands and weighs close to 1,200 pounds. They are the Mutt and Jeff of thoroughbred racing. She is the trainer, he the breadwinner. Each has a story of survival, but hers is more compelling. Plus, she tells hers better.

USC and a lawsuit filed against the school and others by former defensive lineman Armond Armstead are part of a report on a painkilling drug and its use in college football that will air Thursday night on the ABC News program "Nightline. " In his lawsuit, filed last August, Armstead claims he received improperly administered painkilling injections of Toradol -- a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug also known as Ketorolac - that caused him to suffer a heart attack and hurt his chances for an NFL career.

I have a crush on my polo pony. His name is Leon. Many polo ponies come from other countries. Leon is American. The last time I drove a domestic was a Chevy rental. Liked it well enough to try again. So Leon and I are a couple now. At least for an afternoon, while I learn to play polo out in Temecula. Last week, hang gliding. This week, polo. Please don't mock me, though I certainly would if I were you. It's as if I've suddenly awakened as a thrill-seeking playboy, the algorithms of my next fortune dancing in my pretty little head.

The world's best race horse is unbeaten Frankel, and the 4-year-old made an emphatic statement on Tuesday, winning by 11 lengths to improve to 11-0 in the Group I Queen Anne Stakes as part of the Royal Ascot Carnival. Trained by Henry Cecil and ridden by Tom Queally, Frankel has become Europe's wonder horse. If only Frankel would come to America to run in the Breeders' Cup, but Cecil told reporters afterward it was "very unlikely. " ALSO: Jockey Joel Rosario heading to New York Love Theway Youare wins Vanity Handicap Scramble begins to replace jockey Joel Rosario

All-American Futurity winner Eastex, history's richest 2-year-old race horse, will begin his 3-year-old campaign tonight at Los Alamitos Race Course as one of 28 colts and geldings competing in the El Primero Del Ano Derby trials. The 400-yard El Primero Del Ano Derby, which has an estimated purse of $270,000, will be run on Saturday, January 12. The 10 fastest qualifiers from tonight's three trial divisions will comprise the field.

The Preakness has been held up here as a satellite tournament of the race track. A basker in reflected glory. The Avis of horse racing. The Kentucky Derby's best friend. If it were human, it'd be Gabby Hayes. To win the Preakness while mucking up the Kentucky Derby always seemed to stamp you as one who would settle for hand-me-downs, eat leftovers, fly tourist. Second-hand, second-class, second-banana. The Vice President.

I guess it was when I found out that Bruce McNall and Wayne Gretzky had paid just under half a million clams for a baseball card that I decided to call up the classified department of this newspaper to take out a want ad. It went something like this: WANTED: Bruce McNall and Wayne Gretzky to buy my stuff. Attic full of useless junk. Empty beer cans. Old Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass albums. Bunch of 25-cent postage stamps. Old sled called Rosebud II in mint condition.

An announcement is expected this week--probably today--that John Henry, the 11-year-old gelding who has won more money than any other race horse in history, will be permanently retired. John Henry, winner of $6,597,947, 30 stakes races and 2 horse-of-the-year titles, developed a swelling in his lower left foreleg after a six-furlong workout at Del Mar a week ago. With a younger horse, rest would probably have cured the problem.

Waquoit, ridden by Chris McCarron, raced to his fifth straight victory Saturday in the $415,800 Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont Park. It was the first Grade I win for the 4-year-old colt, who is owned by Joseph Federico and trained by his cousin, Guido Federico. "He proved he was a race horse today by winning a mile-and-a-half race," Guido Federico said. "He seems to be getting better and better. "Chris gave him a masterful ride.

USC and a lawsuit filed against the school and others by former defensive lineman Armond Armstead are part of a report on a painkilling drug and its use in college football that will air Thursday night on the ABC News program "Nightline. " In his lawsuit, filed last August, Armstead claims he received improperly administered painkilling injections of Toradol -- a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug also known as Ketorolac - that caused him to suffer a heart attack and hurt his chances for an NFL career.

Del Mar is celebrating its 75th anniversary of horse racing by increasing purses in 10 stakes races, a move aimed at keeping California horses at home so they can race on the seaside venue's synthetic surface. The season opens Wednesday, highlighted by the two-division $100,000 Oceanside Stakes for 3-year-olds on turf. Wednesday-through-Sunday racing continues through Sept. 5, including a Labor Day card. Majestic City, winner of last year's Hollywood Juvenile Championship, is scheduled to race in the second division of the Oceanside Stakes.

The world's best race horse is unbeaten Frankel, and the 4-year-old made an emphatic statement on Tuesday, winning by 11 lengths to improve to 11-0 in the Group I Queen Anne Stakes as part of the Royal Ascot Carnival. Trained by Henry Cecil and ridden by Tom Queally, Frankel has become Europe's wonder horse. If only Frankel would come to America to run in the Breeders' Cup, but Cecil told reporters afterward it was "very unlikely. " ALSO: Jockey Joel Rosario heading to New York Love Theway Youare wins Vanity Handicap Scramble begins to replace jockey Joel Rosario

I'll Have Another was added to a short list and a long list Friday by bowing out of the Belmont Stakes because of a leg injury. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner is just the third horse to win the first two legs of horse racing's Triple Crown to not race in the third. But he's just the latest of many horses to have tendinitis end their career. After I'll Have Another took a routine gallop over the Elmont, N.Y., track Thursday afternoon, trainer Doug O'Neill noticed a "loss of definition" in the thoroughbred's left leg. After an easy gallop early Friday morning, additional swelling was visible after a cooling-down period.

In horse racing terms, Grant and Greta Hays have had a rough trip. They have two young children, both severely autistic. "After we had Jack, we wanted to have another child," Grant Hays says. "We thought the odds of having a second with autism were really low. " Jack is 6, Dylan 2. Neither speaks, except on rare spontaneous occasions. According to their father, they are antisocial kids, which is not unusual with autistic children. Grant says it creates a life of stress and tension, and cites research that says something like 85% of parents with autistic children get divorced.

Sam Rubin, who with his wife, Dorothy, owned two-time horse of the year John Henry, died of undisclosed causes Feb. 13 in Palm Beach, Fla. He was 91. Rubin, a New York bicycle importer who made it big when cycling became the recreational rage in the 1960s, had been a lifelong horseplayer and owned a few insignificant racehorses when he bought an undistinguished John Henry for $25,000 in 1978. When John Henry was inducted into racing's Hall of Fame in 1990, Rubin recalled his initial naivete.

Her best friend is a 6-year-old gelding who back home in England has an adjoining stall with a window in between. Her favorite drink is Guinness stout. She gets a pint every morning. One of her favorite foods is brown-shelled eggs. She has some mixed into her mash each day. These are the peculiarities of Pebbles, the 4-year-old filly who will probably go to the post as the favorite against 13 rivals today in the $2-million Breeders' Cup Turf Stakes at Aqueduct.

I have a crush on my polo pony. His name is Leon. Many polo ponies come from other countries. Leon is American. The last time I drove a domestic was a Chevy rental. Liked it well enough to try again. So Leon and I are a couple now. At least for an afternoon, while I learn to play polo out in Temecula. Last week, hang gliding. This week, polo. Please don't mock me, though I certainly would if I were you. It's as if I've suddenly awakened as a thrill-seeking playboy, the algorithms of my next fortune dancing in my pretty little head.

Russell Reineman, who sold one Kentucky Derby winner less than a month before the race and raced the sire of another Derby winner, died Tuesday at his suburban Chicago home in Oak Brook, Ill. He was 86. No cause of death was given. His daughter, Lynne McCutcheon, said last year that her father had been in ill health. Although Reineman's lifelong business was steel -- he took a job with U.S.

John Franks, a Louisiana oilman who won a record four Eclipse awards as an owner of thoroughbred horses, died Wednesday night at Willis-Knighton Pierremont Health Center in Shreveport, La. No cause of death was given. He was 78. Franks, who founded Franks Petroleum in 1957, bought his first horse in 1979 and quickly immersed himself in the sport. Becoming an astute student of bloodlines, Franks bred most of the horses he raced.